Administration of therapeutic agents



Filed Aug.` 6, 1928 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Aug. 2, 1932. K c. 1 sTocKLlN 1,869,443

ADMINISTRATION OF THERAPEUTIC AGENTS Filed Aug. e. 1928 2 sheets-'sheet 2 Patented Aug. 2, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLIFFORD L. STOCKLIN, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO COOK LABORATORIES, INC., F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A CORPORATION OF DELAWARE ADMINISTRATION OF THERAPEUTIC AGENTS Application filed August 6, 1928. Serial No. 297,590.

My invention relates to therapeutics and more speciically to an improvement in the adminstration of medicaments. It includes among its objects and advantages the provision oi. an improved method and apparatus for administering large numbers of doses of medicament in sterile condition, with a minimum ofl time and effort involved, not only in the actual administration, but in maintaining sterile and aseptic conditions.

In 'the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a partially diagrammatic side elevation of a form of apparatus according to the invention; i

Figure 2 is a section partially in elevation through the pressure reducing valve, cartridge and holder, and the connections for reaching the patient.

Figure 3 is a horizontal section partially in plan view through the reducing valve and connections leading thereto on line 3 3, including the resilient adjustable storage chamber.

In the apparatus selected for illustration,

the medicament is contained in a cartridge cient for the administration of tens or even hundreds of doses. It is made up, sterilized and sealed under factory conditions and delivered to the user ready for insertion into thedispensing apparatus installed on the premises of the user.

I have illustrated a holder in the form of a barrel 2O cut away at 22 to form a window through which the user may observe the position and movement of the piston 16. The lower end of the holder has a central aperture at 24 and means below the aperture for maintaining connection with the delivery conduit. The means illustrated comprises an internally threaded sleeve 26.

Connection to the tissues of the patient is established through a canula, and a conduit leading from the cartridge to the canula. I vhave illustrated a tube 28 of almost capillary dimensions and of a grade of rubber that will facilitate occasional sterilizing of the tube and connections. Each end of the tube carries a terminal comprising a glass sleeve 30 provided with beads 3Q for gripping the end of the tube, and a metal end piece 34 of platinite, or the like, having a retaining iiange 36 to hold it in place. The metal end piece has a small central bore 38 for receiving the idle end of a canula 40. To assemble the end connected with the cartridge, a canula is placed in the tube 38 and the end piece 84 is screwed into place in the sleeve 26. This causes the end of the canula to pierce the reduced central portion 42 of the end plug 14 as clearly indicated at 44 and establish communication with the interior of the cartridge.

To assemble the end next the patient, a canula 40 is placed in the tube 38 and clamped in place by the usual retaining nut 46. Each canula has a central enlargement 48 for clamping it in place against. axial movement.

It will be apparent that a force exerted against the piston 16 will tend to cause the contents of the cartridge to flow out. I have illustrated means `for checking and controlling such flow at a point between the car- -tridge and the patient, as by collapsing the tube'28 by an ordinary pinch cock 50. The

pinch cock 50 cuts oit the flow past the point i of collapse a trifle before the entire available squeezing force of the pinch cock is exerted on the tube. The further yielding of the tube under the squeezing force of the pinch cock will expel a Very slight but appreciable amount of additional liquid from the canula 40 at the patients end. This facilitates the technique of administration without contamination of any of the parts of the device.

A dose may be administered, and the manipulation preparatory to giving another does, either to the same or another patient, need involve only slipping off the canula 40 at the discharge end and slipping on a new canula. This reduces the manipulation between successive doses to a minimum.

I have illustrated means for exerting hydraulic pressure generated by an external power source upon the piston 16. The reservoir 52 (see Fig. l) is of several times the capacity of the cartridge 10, being drawn on a smaller scale for convenience. It may be filled with a suitable liquid such as sterile glycerine. It 's connected through a flexible tube 54 to the intake end of a cut-off valve 56 leading into the pressure regulator 58. I have illustrated a valve member GO connected to the diaphragm 62 by the yoke 64 and controlled as to its movement by the compression spring 66, the tension of which may be adjusted by the adjusting screw 68. The adjusting screw 68 is provided with a pointer 70 and the face of the casing 7l may constitute a dial 72 graduated in terms of the pressure on the discharge side of the reducing valve. For precise work, and for checking experimental results in different laboratories and hospitals, a standardized Bourdon gage 75 may be mounted on the lower portion of the casing 71. Any suitable pump or source of pressure in excess of the highest pressure needed for operation of the apparatus may be connected to the reservoir 52 as at 74.

Since the frictional resistance to flow through the long tube 28 of small diameter will be relativelyhigh, the rate at which medicament will flow into the tissues of the patient when the pinch cock 50 is opened, may be made to depend very largely on the pressure rendered available by the reducing valve, and only to a relatively slight degree on variations in the strength and resistance to infiltration ofthe tissues being treated. Thus the operator may set the indicator to a pressure ascertained as desirable for the t-ype of treatment being given and pass from one point of administration to the next with great rapidity, opening the pinch cock promptly after insertion of the canula and gauging the amount of medicament by the time of injection, by the swelling of the tissues, by the movement of the piston 16, or by any or all of these three criteria.

It is sometimes desirable to have a precise and accurate measure of the amount of a given injection. I have illustrated a cham` ber 76 communicating laterally with the passageway 78 leading from the valve 56 into the reducing chamber. The dimensions of the chamber 76 are limited by the position of the piston 80 slidable therein against the force of a compression spring 82. The cap 84 provides a support for the threaded adjusting screw 86, which screw is not connected with the piston 80 but merely abuts the same to limit its outward movement. The tension of the spring 82 should be such that the available pressure on the high pressure side of the reducing valve will compress it, but sufficient to push the piston 8O inward and generate a pressure in excess of any operating pressure needed on the low pressure side of the reducing valve.

Thus when the ope-rater wishes to inject a precisely predetermined charge, the pin 86 may be quickly turned to the position corresponding to the volume to be injected. The valve 56 is then closed. The operator may now turn his entire attention to the patient, and to the introduction of the canula. Upon release of theR pinch cock 50 the piston 80 will promptly move to the end ofthe chamber 76 and the predetermined volume of medicament will be injected at the rate predetermined by the pressure setting of the reducing valve. IVhen the vpiston 8O reaches the end of chamber 76 no further flow will occur, and the Bourdon gage will show an abrupt drop in the pressure, down to the resistance of the patients tissues to infiltration.

The cartridge and associated parts may, if desired, be suspended, as by a tension member 88, from any convenient support not farther from the patient than the length of tube 28. Alternatively, the operator can carry the cartridge from place to place or hang the same about his neck and move from place to place within the limits permitted by the flexible tube 54:.

When the cartridge is exhausted, the pressure on the reservoir 52 may be relieved by closing a cut-off valve 90 in the supply line.

The holder 20 may be unscrewed from the head 92 forming an integral part of the casing of the reducing valve. This should be done over a basin or some similar receptacle as the liquid in the casing of the reducing valve will immediately run out, and as the cartridge will be completely filled with the same liquid, which will need to be poured out. The cartridge may now be removed from the holder and a fresh cartridge inserted. The holder is screwed back into the head 92, the valve 90 is opened to put pressure on the system, and the air entrapped in the casing of the reducing valve may be blown off through a suitable pet cock 9iat the top of the casing. The apparatus is now ready for another period of use. At relatively long intervals the liquid accumulated `when the cartridge is changed can be sterilized and put back in the reservoir 52.

1 IVithout further elaboration the foregoing will so fully explain the gist of my invention that others may, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt the same for use under various conditions of service. It will be obvious that all the features of the invention need not necessarily be employed in conjunction as they may advantageously be .1;

utilized in various combinations and subcombinations.

lVhat I claim is:

l. A method of applying' measured doses ofmedicament which comprises penetrating the part to be treated with a canula, storing a body of liquid medicament and storing a predetermined charge of another liquid under resilient pressure, and permitting said pressure acting through said other liquid to expel an equivalent volume of medicament through said canula.

2. Injection apparatus comprising a hypodermic canula, a cartridge, a conduit connecting said cartridge and said canula, a reser-v voir connected to said cartridge, an adjustable pressure reducing valve between said cartridge and reservoir, a resilient adjustable storage means between said reducing valve and said reservoir, and means for putting the contents of said reservoir under pressure.

3. Injection apparatus comprising a hypodermic canula, a cartridge, a conduit connecting said cartridge and said canula, a reservoir connected to said cartridge, an adjustable pressure reducing Valve between said cartridge and reservoir, and means for putting the liquid in said reservoir under pressure.

4. Injection apparatus comprising a hypodermic canula, a flexible conduit constituting a pressure connection to said canula, a container of hypodermic fluid connected to said conduit, a reservoir for pressure fluid operatively connected to said container, an adjustable pressure reducing valve between said container and reservoir, a resilient adjustable liquid storage means between said reducing valve and said reservoir, and means for putting the contents of said reservoir under pressure.

5. Injection apparatus comprising a hypodermic canula, a iiexible conduit constituting a pressure connection to said canula, a container of hypodermic fluid connected to said conduit, a reservoir for pressure fluid operatively connected to said container, an adjustable pressure reducing valve between said reservoir and container, a cut-o" valve between said reducing valve and said reservoir, and means forA putting the liquid in said reservoir under pressure.

6. Medicament injection apparatus of the character described comprising in combination a canula, a cartridge connected to said canula to discharge therethrough a power source for putting the contents of said cartridge under pressure, operator controlled pressure adjustment means, measuring means for controlling the expulsion of a predtermined fraction of the contents of said cartridge fixedly mounted on andvmovable 'with said cartridge, and operator controlled means for cutting off the flow at a point between said cartridge and said canula, said pressure adjustment means andmeasuring means being mounted together at the end of said cartridge remote from the connection to said canula.

7. Medicament injection apparatus of the character described comprising in combination a canula, a cartridge connected to said canula to discharge therethrough, a power source for put-ting the contents of said cartridge under pressure, operator controlled measuring means for controlling the. expulsion of a predetermined fraction of the contents of said cartridge, and operator controlled -means for cutting off the fiow at a point between said cartridge and said canula.

8. Injection apparatus comprising a canula, a medicament cartridge having a penetrable plug at one end, a second canula for penetrating thc plug to establish a pressure connection with theinterior of the cartridge, a flexible conduit constituting a pressure connection between said canulas, a detachable coupling between said second canula and said cartridge, a detachable coupling between said first canula and said conduit, 'a piston plug in said cart-ridge at the end remote from said penetrable plug, a reservoir of sterile liquid, a closed conduit connecting said reservoir to the rear face of said piston plug, and means for putting the liquid in said reservoir under pressure.

9. Injection apparatus of the character described comprising in combination a canula, a cartridge connected to said canula and containing a supply of medicament, a holder in which said cartridge is removably mounted, said holder and cartridge cooperating to pro-V vide a chamber for a body of liquid, and means for transmitting pressure through said liquid to said cartridge to decrease the interior volume of said cartridge and expel the contents thereof.

10. Injection apparatus of the character described comprising in combination, a receptacle for containing a supply of medicament, an injecting canula connected with said receptacle, means for providing fluid pressure in excess of that required for individual injection, means for reducing such pressure to an amount suflicient for individual injection, and means for communicating such pressure to the contents of said receptacle, whereby a constant reduced pressure may be maintained throughout the injection of said medicament.

11. Injection apparatus of the character described comprising in combination, a receptacle containing sufficient medicament for a plurality of injections, an injecting canula connected therewith, means for applying fluid pressure to expel the contents of said receptacle, and means for storing a predetermined quantity of said fluid to act on said medicament to expel equivalent quantities of said medicament. f

12. A method of applying a measured dose of medicament which comprises storing a predetermined charge of liquid under a resilient pressure while imposing said pressure on a confined body of hypodermic liquid, and establishing communication .between said body of hypodermic liquid and an injecting needle penetrating the part to be treated, thereby permitting said pressure to displace said stored charge with resultant ejection through the needle of an equivale-nt Volume of said hypodermic liquid.

13. Injection apparatus comprising a container of hypodermic liquid, means for storing a predetermined charge of other liquid under n resilient pressure acting' through said other liquid on the bod)v of hypodermic liquid, andnleans for establishing communication between said Container and an injectionadministeringl needle to permit said pressure to displace said stored charge and thereby cause ejection of an equivalent Volume of said h vpodermie liquid.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification.

CLIFFORD L. STOGKLIN. 

